


Of Honor and Hemlines

by OnstageSport



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crossdressing, Crossdressing for a Cause, Dress Code, Dresses, Gen, Jack has a slight social justice kink, M/M, don't worry it's barely noticeable, i never got dress coded so I'm making this up as I go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 13:40:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11403570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnstageSport/pseuds/OnstageSport
Summary: When Katherine gets unfairly sent home for her completely school-appropriate outfit, she and the boys take matters into their own hands.





	Of Honor and Hemlines

**Author's Note:**

> This was written on zero hours of sleep and unedited.

It had all started because Katherine had been sent home the day she, Jack, and Racetrack were supposed to do a presentation for their marketing class. Because she had been in charge of the research and was not there to explain it, their presentation had ended less well than they had anticipated. When they called to ask what happened, because she would never willingly abandon them like that so she _must_ be dying.

After school was released, she met up with them and some of their other friends—namely David, Spot, Crutchie, and Romeo—at Jacobi’s diner, all sitting at one table.

“I got sent home because my skirt was ‘inappropriate for a learning environment’ and I was ‘unwilling to cooperate,’” she explained with a nasally, mocking voice that nearly perfectly imitated the secretary Ms. Hannah’s voice.

“Well, that’s messed up,” Jack noted.

“Yeah, you ain’t even dressed bad,” Race pointed out, peeking under the table. Spot elbowed him hard in the side and they launched into a private conversation—though it was conducted in whispers, Jack could hear the word “perv” a couple times.

“That’s literally something my sister would wear to _work_. Someone needs to point out that the dress code is ridiculous,” Davey suggested, taking a bite of his salad.

“Yeah, because that hasn’t been done,” Katherine groaned, burying her head in her hands. “It’s just that no one listens when we try to point out that the entire thing is sexist anyway. It’s always about making sure that no one’s knees or shoulders are a distraction to such upstanding male education. Never mind that they yank a girl out of class and send her _home_ , completely disrupting _her_ education. It makes me sick.”

Jack and Davey exchanged a look, their eyes glinting with inspiration. This look prompted Crutchie and Romeo to share one of their own, a more skeptical one. Racetrack and Spot were still engaged in their whispers and too busy to notice.

“What are you two thinking?” Katherine asked suspiciously.

“Maybe the problem is that they don’t really value the girl’s perspective when they’re getting written up—” Davey began

“Or the girls in general,” Katherine interrupted, taking a sip of her water.

“So we were thinking; what if the people getting written up _weren’t_ girls?” Jack finished.

“You mean, _you’re_ going to organize a protest wherein you lot wear dresses and skirts?” Katherine clarified, raising her hand to her face to hide her amusement.

“And anything else that is specified as only being an infraction when girls wear it,” Davey confirmed. 

He glanced around the table for support, surprised to see that the only one showing any kind of hesitation about it was Crutchie. The rest were enthusiastic about the cause and they started coordinating details. During that time, Davey nudged Jack and indicated Crutchie with a nod of his head. Jack then switched seats to sit next to him.

“Something wrong?” he asked in a low voice.

Crutchie hesitated before responding. “I _do_ want to help, of course I do. I just…it’s my leg. I…I don’t…”

“Nah, I get it,” Jack assured with a smile, wrapping his arm around his brother. “We can find you something that won’t show it. I promise.”

“Thanks, Jack,” Crutchie smiled.

Jack returned to his seat as the others had determined the date of their protest and had begun contacting the rest of their friends.

\- - -

They had planned the protest for that Friday, which gave them three days to acquire their outfits. Katherine had offered her wardrobe but couldn’t guarantee that she would have clothes that would fit all of the boys. When the group came over to try on her clothes, she said that she would take them to the nearest thrift store to get items for those hers wouldn’t fit.

“We don’t need supervision,” Spot had scoffed as he unabashedly stripped to his boxers in the middle of her bedroom and pulled a dress over his head. “I think we can figure it out.”

“Yeah, that’s not fitting you because it’s a twelve,” Katherine pointed out when it wouldn’t get past his shoulders.

“Where are the other numbers?” he questioned in response, prompting Katherine to smirk at him, satisfied that she proved her point.

She thanked them once again for their support and then left her guests to try on skirts and dresses in privacy but stayed nearby in case any of them needed help getting into or out of them. Plus, she was a little bit concerned about them rifling through her things while she was out of the room.

Her wardrobe had a small dent in it by the time the boys were through carrying off their finds.

\- - -

Friday came and Katherine truly had no idea how the day was going to go. She wore a blouse and skirt combination not unlike the one she had been sent home for wearing earlier in the week. This was not unusual, but she was sure that it would solidify her stance with the boys and their silent protest.

They had all agreed to meet in the parking lot before school and make a big dramatic entrance together (Jack’s idea). Katherine supposed this also served to get all their laughter about how ridiculous they looked over with so as to not disrupt their cause.

And boy, did they look ridiculous. 

When Katherine arrived in the lot, she saw Jack Kelly leaning against his car in what she assumed _he_ assumed was an intimidating manner. He wore a light pink pleated skirt that fell to mid-thigh on him, paired with what appeared to be his least paint-stained t-shirt, a snapback, and sneakers.

Crutchie was inside the car but quickly got out when he saw Katherine approach. True to his word, Jack had managed to find something that would break dress code but keep him feeling comfortable. He wore a black and white horizontally striped halter top that tied around his neck. It would risk showing off a sliver of his midriff if he hadn’t paired it with a high-waisted ankle-length skirt.

“Ooh, you are going to _regret_ that,” Katherine laughed, wincing at Crutchie’s future neck burn.

“I thought it looked good,” Crutchie responded, staring down at his outfit.

“Oh, no, it does, I was just-”

Katherine’s explanation was cut off by a wolf whistle and when she turned, she saw Racetrack, Spot, Romeo, and Specs striding towards them. Specs wore a light blue mini skirt with white polka dots that actually would have looked really good on him if he hadn’t worn a green plaid button down over a comic book t-shirt with it. Romeo wore a tight jean skirt and a dark blue button down.

Spot and Racetrack had gone all out and were wearing dresses. Race wore a low-cut black spaghetti strapped dress patterned with roses. If the spaghetti straps and neckline weren’t enough to get him in trouble, his dark gray boxers peeked out from beneath the hem. Spot wore a lacy, belted peach-colored dress that was only barely longer than Race’s. It was the first time in recorded history that anyone recalled Spot Conlon wearing sleeves.

“Ow ow!” Jack hollered back, grinning deviously at them.

“So, we’re just missing Mush, Blink, Albert, and Davey, right?” Race asked once he got to them and surveyed who had already arrived.

“Did you _shave your legs_?” Crutchie asked, gawking at Spot’s legs. This one question sparked everyone clamoring to look at Spot’s shaved legs. He really _had_ gone all out.

During the commotion, Mush, Blink, and Albert arrived.

“Kath, you really need to get some variety in your wardrobe,” Albert stated, gesturing to the similar skirts that the three of them wore. They were all of a ‘swishy’ fabric in pastel shades of blue, green, and orange.

“And you’re not going to comment on the seven dark blue t-shirts you own?” Katherine asked with a quirk of her brow.

“Or,” Albert countered, flipping his skirt dramatically. “Do I have _one_ that I wear seven times a week?”

That possibility was met with groans, even from his friends.

“That’s disgusting,” Katherine scolded.

“I don’t know what it is, but I agree full-heartedly,” Davey panted as he finally arrived. "Sorry I'm late, I had to drop Les off."

The rest of the boys whooped when they caught sight of him. Davey self-consciously tugged at the hem of the dress that was riding up from his running from his car to meet up with them.

“I didn’t know _that_ was an option!” Albert commented, clapping a hand over his heart. Davey became intensely focused on his shoes. He was completely unused to that kind of attention.

Davey would be the first one to get coded in a dress like that. The neckline was even lower than that of Racetrack’s dress, dipping to where his cleavage would be had he had breasts. The floaty hemline reached mid-thigh.

“That’s because it’s not mine,” Katherine pointed out. “Sarah’s got good taste.”

“We’re all here,” Spot declared. “Shall we make our big entrance?” He looked to Jack, who seemed to be completely zoned out. “Uhh, Jacky boy?”

Jack snapped out of his haze with a fierce shake of his head.

“Huh? Yeah. Yeah, let’s go,” he commanded but he kept an eye on Davey, watching the skirt flutter as he walked with the group towards the school.

\- - -

Only some of the boys were dress coded for their violations, a fact which only fueled their ire at the situation. Those that had been—Davey, Race, Spot, and Jack—tried to explain the situation and their cause, but they were shut down. 

The rest of the gang was waiting for them outside the principal’s office at the end of the day and once they had been released, they immediately swarmed on them, asking for details.

“ _Apparently_ ,” Jack huffed. “They care more about a couple of boys in dresses than their ridiculous policies.”

“And they’re gonna say _this_ ain’t a distraction?” Race bragged, twirling around so that all his friends could admire how great he looked in Katherine’s dress. Most of the reactions were just eye rolls but his ever-supportive boyfriend gave him a quick but appreciative smack on the butt. That was all the validation he required.

“They _did_ think you were a distraction,” Crutchie pointed out. "They called you in."

“But those are _extreme_ dresses,” Katherine stated, indicating the necklines and hems of each boy’s attire. She would have been coded for far less drastic styles.

“We’re just going to have to keep going then,” David declared with a firm nod. His eyes shone with his passion and Jack smiled watching him in action. “Kath, do you have more things we can borrow?”

“Yeah, of course,” Katherine agreed. “But it wouldn’t hurt if Sarah could supply to more than just you? We don’t know how long this is going to be. And the thrift store’s always open.”

“If any of you thought this was just going to be this one time thing and want to back down,” Davey continued. “That’s fine. We can do it without you.”

“Nah,” Spot spoke for all of them. And even in a dress, he still commanded more authority than most of them could ever dream of garnering. “We’re all in this for the long haul. For Katherine.”

“For short skirts,” added Romeo cheekily.

“For equality,” Katherine corrected both of them. “Now, come on. _Somebody’s_ got a little brother to pick up.”

The eleven of them made their way back to the parking lot, discussing their next steps. Some of the boys were already calling dibs on other options that Katherine had had to offer.

“You know, Davey,” Jack struck up conversation as they headed down the hall. “This is a real good look for you.”

“Well, looks like the queens got some fancy new robes,” a voice greeted as they exited the building and got onto the lot.

The all looked around for the source and immediately upon finding it, Jack approached the Delancey brothers.

“You know, that’s real clever, Morris. You spend all day thinking of that?” he asked cockily.

“Actually,” Katherine stated before Morris could open his mouth, striding past Jack confidently and placing herself between her friends and the bullies. All of the boys exchanged unsure looks about whether or not to stop her. Surely the Delanceys wouldn’t punch a girl…right? “They’re doing this out of solidarity for the girls in this school.”

“Is that right?” Oscar asked, cracking his neck.

That didn’t bode well and all of the boys went on high alert, closing in. Katherine heard the frantic footsteps and held out her hand to signal that they should back off.

“Yes,” she confirmed. She continued carefully, deliberately choosing each word. “But, seeing as you don’t really hang around with many girls, I don’t see that it concerns you.” The brothers exchanged a glance and her friends took charge, ushering her away from the situation before it escalated to violence. She simply raised her voice as she was carted off. “If you’d like to join the movement, you could always ask your mother for clothes when she comes back around…eventually! If she _ever_ does!”

Once they were safely at their cars, Jack looked her square in the eyes and asked with no ounce of humor, “Kath, what the hell?”

“I honestly have no idea,” she stated before patting him on the shoulder and accusing them for ‘rubbing off on her.’ She got in her car and invited all of them over to raid her closet while her father was still at work, and thanked them for all of their work that day.

\- - -

Their protest had spread from their group of friends over the course of the next week while the administrators tried to corral them. There had to be at least twenty boys participating, but the administration was finally starting to try to code all of them and not just those in the most revealing outfits. Because of this crack down on their dress code policy, classes were getting disrupted by the very faculty meant to be keeping the ship running smoothly. Davey even pointed this out to them while they were coding Finch for his plaid skirt that looked like it had once belonged to a private school. The administrators paid him no mind, more concerned with staying in control of the situation that was increasingly getting out of hand.

When the original three—Katherine, Davey, and Jack—felt like they had backed them into a corner, they approached the principal with a composed list of suggested alternatives to the current rules regarding female students’ attire. They had set up a meeting for that Friday, one week from the start of their surprisingly effective protest.

Unfortunately, when they arrived for the meeting—all in just barely dress code-abiding dresses—they found an ambush waiting for them. Joseph Pulitzer was standing beside the principal’s desk and he looked anything but pleased.

“Katherine,” he reprimanded. “What were you _thinking_? I make a sizable donation to this school every year and-”

“And don’t you think your daughter has the same right to learn as the rest of us?” Jack demanded. When Pulitzer turned his gaze on him, lingering for only a second, he could see the disgust.

“Why is that boy wearing your skirt?”

“We’re trying to raise awareness of-”

“My daughter can speak for herself,” Pulitzer cut off Davey’s explanation. He self-consciously toyed with the frilly hem of his sister’s lavender dress. “Well?”

“We’re trying to raise awareness of the misogynistic double standards that target the girls in this school and disrupt their education,” Katherine explained succinctly.

Pulitzer seemed displeased that his daughter was so articulate so he turned on Jack and asked if he knew how much that garment cost.

“More than I’m worth?” Jack guessed. He had no idea how much he was worth but he knew that to people like Pulitzer, it wasn’t much.

“More than you’re worth,” he confirmed.

“Sir, all we’re trying to do is point out a flaw in the system and make a change,” Davey explained. To their principal, to Pulitzer, to both? He wasn’t sure. “Girls have been making complaints about the dress code for ages but you never listened and it led to-”

“To students making fools of themselves and a mockery of the school,” the principal dictated.

“Well, desperate times call for desperate measures,” Katherine advocated. She held out the file that she had brought in with her. “We’ve brought some suggestions on how to make the dress code a little more fair. We hope this week has led you to consider them.”

She gently placed the folder on the principal’s desk with a charming smile. She glanced to her companions and nodded. That was all that they had gone there to accomplish.

“May we be excused?” she bravely asked, her eyes flickering to her father.

“There’s still the matter of your detention.”

“That’s outrageous!” Pulitzer exploded. “She will not be serving any-”

“I want to,” Katherine determined, fire in her eyes. “While the idea was Jack and Davey’s, a lot of the organization and coordination went through me. I’m not going to be exempt from this.”

Pulitzer could do nothing but stare wide-eyed and slack-jawed as the daughter he had raised turned on him in this way. The principal gave them all a Saturday detention for all the disturbance they had caused through the school. Pulitzer tried to reduce Katherine’s sentence, only to have her fight for the same punishment as he friends and cohorts.

It took a few minutes of negotiation but Pulitzer finally caved and allowed his daughter to serve the Saturday detention with Jack and David.

“On the condition at least ten percent of the changes we suggested will be made to the upcoming year’s dress code,” Katherine negotiated.

“You don’t get to bargain-”

“Why not? It’s worked so far,” Jack finally spoke up again.

Because neither adult could provide a better response than ‘that’s the way it is,’ the principal agreed to look over their demands and do what he could do.

“Which is Adult Speak for a whole lotta nothing,” Jack pointed out.

“I will _try_ , Mr. Kelly,” the principal assured.

When all the business was finalized, the students were released back into the school to finish their day.

“I meant what I said, Dave,” Jack reminded once they were out of earshot, nodding at Davey’s figure in the dress. “You _do_ look real good in a dress.”

Davey blushed and looked down at the dress.

“Oh. Well, you know. I don’t know, this was probably a one-time, well…a one-week thing,” he shrugged. He noticed Jack’s oddly flirtatious demeanor had faded slightly and he shrugged again. “Well, I mean…maybe for special occasions. They aren’t really _so_ bad.”


End file.
